Harness: This Is The Plan took a lickin' and kept on tickin' in 2021

There are no consolation prizes when it comes to year-end awards and maybe that's regrettable. There's a price to pay for success in this business as to timing. In the case of Horse of the Year honors, the scale is quite heavily-balanced towards races late in the year, and that just may be a function of short-term memory during a time when news is digested and disposed of within a 24-hour cycle.

Looking back on 2021 in the Standardbred world, it's nearly impossible to forget two incredible miles put in by one horse that may not even finish third in the balloting for divisional honors but would have been a runaway winner had ballots been cast in July. We're speaking about This Is The Plan, a veteran campaigner that authored a pair of mind-numbing miles over half-mile tracks in April and June that still reverberate today. The Ron Burke-trained gelding managed to maintain a top-10 ranking as far as overall earnings on the season and much of that is due to his early success in races like the MGM Borgata Pacing Series final at Yonkers and the Battle of Lake Erie blowout at Northfield Park.

Driver Yannick Gingras singled those two miles above all others on This Is The Plan's 2021 resume as unquestionably his best efforts.

"The mile he went in the Levy [sic Borgata] going for $500,000 was unbelievable," said Gingras, referring to the Yonkers race before moving on to the Battle of Lake Erie. "The track was really fast at Northfield that night. I was worried at the half we were going a bit too fast, but he relaxed, and when we hit three-quarters in 1:20 (3/5), I asked him to pace, and he responded."

The result was an epic 1:47 3/5 mile going four turns, with runner-up Western Joe more than five lengths in arrears.

The Borgata final was epic and falls into the category of perhaps one of this year's top 10 races for me. That Gingras sent This Is The Plan screeching out from post eight and was able to out-sprint horses while racing wide around the tricky first turn at Yonkers is no small feat. That he was able to do so in a $500,000 race, with Gingras more than confident, says a lot about both horse and driver. A 26 4/5 opening quarter didn't rattle This Is The Plan, nor did pacing extremely fast and wide on the opening bend. A 27 flat third quarter secured the Borgata final for This Is The Plan, with a 1:50 4/5 mile the end result.

This Is The Plan's efforts over smaller tracks did not go unnoticed on Gingras, who instantly recognized the results that showed This Is The Plan beaten on a regular basis on the bigger ovals.

"I think with him, he can pace just as fast on a turn as he can a straightaway," said Gingras, who made every attempt to keep This Is The Plan forwardly-placed on big tracks this year but fell victim to horses that appeared to have just more sheer speed in crunch time.

"He's the kind of horse you didn't want to send three-wide on the turn," said Gingras.

With over $800K banked this year, This Is The Plan, a 6-year-old, boosted his career bank account above $2.5 million.

What's interesting in the long analysis of this year's aged group is what Breeders Crown champion Ocean Rock and late-season star and likely division winner Allywag Hanover were doing in March and April when This Is The Plan was shining at Yonkers.

Ocean Rock had come out east with full intent of racing in the Borgata, but after qualifying in February would be on the shelf until May. That he won his first race in June in a low conditioned event and his first open stakes race in September would do little to outweigh some incredible moments in the fall, including that upset in the Breeders Crown.

As for Allywag Hanover, it was a brilliant year but quite unlike This Is The Plan or Ocean Rock in that he made just two starts over five-eighths mile tracks, concentrating a successful campaign primarily on the mile tracks. There were bumps in the road for him as well, but overall, winning six of his final eight stakes races against the best horses, would likely justify his division honors.

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For This Is The Plan, 25 starts was more than his rivals, and it's fair to say given the demands of aged racing, it wasn't a total shock to see him at less than peak effectiveness late in the season.

"The Burkes have done this for a long time," said Gingras. "They have raced the older horses like this, and they know what to do. They did it with Foiled Again and Sweet Lou."

Indeed, it's hard to find any other stables that managed to race horses as hard as Team Burke has from year-to-year with such an impact and a staying power. The incredible miles that This is The Plan put in during May and June could have put other horses on the bench recovering for weeks, but This Is The Plan recovered quickly and would be able to race hard no matter what the circumstances were and fight to the wire.

While Gingras would give credit to This Is The Plan for his efforts, this year he was not about to put him in the category with other elite pacers he's driven.

"There's no comparing him to Foiled Again," said Gingras, definitively putting Foiled Again in another stratosphere.

While Gingras ended his season once again with horses he drove earning in excess of $10 million, he was clearly not happy with everything.

"I expect to do better each year. This year didn't work out as well as I would have liked. We didn't get the results I expected on the big days," said Gingras. "There are some changes I had to make this year that I'm hoping will work out in the years ahead."

Much like trainers, catch-drivers have to make calculated decisions when they select mounts that may not pay immediate dividends. Gingras piloted both favorites in the two Breeders Crown juvenile trotting events for trainer Domenico Cecere. Raised By Lindy finished a nose behind Joviality S in the $600K final for trotting fillies while 1-2 favorite Branded By Lindy had his seven-race winning streak broken, finishing third in the $600K finale for trotting colts and geldings.

As for his current plans, Gingras expects to keep a lighter schedule over the winter.

"I'm going to race at the Meadowlands on weekends," said Gingras, "And I'll probably race Monday nights at Yonkers, but that's it. It's time to spend more time with my family and watching my kids' games."